Kakashi
Kakashi knew that he had a problem when he thought about the Kurama for the third night in a row. That night when a small breeze drifted through the forest and he smelt him . It was a scent of blood and pain, but also grass and sunshine. It left him breathless. It made him want to lift off the criminal's mask just to see if that face had whiskered cheeks and sky blue eyes.
Naruto .
It couldn't be anyone else. Sunshine was a nickname for the part of Naruto's scent that made it uniquely his. It was the smell of warm clothes that laid out in the sun too long. It was the smell of tanned skin that soaked in the sunlight mixed in with a sweet almost odorless sweat. When Kakashi smelled it for the first time and saw the young boy whose hair glowed under the light, sunshine was the only thing he could think of.
He found himself hesitant to make a move against Kurama, against Naruto. The guilt that he held with him all these years after the boy disappeared seemed to cloud his mind and chain him. It didn't help that every message he tried to send to the hokage got intercepted.
He could only be grateful that the akatsuki member left them alone otherwise. He didn't attack them or seek them out at all. He felt grateful, yet disappointed. A part of him wanted to be seeked out just so he could verify the other's identity.
I can't afford to think of him as Naruto, Kakashi thought to himself.
Kurama was a part of the akatsuki, a mysterious organization made up of S-classed ninja. He's been outside of the village for years and has obviously been trained by someone. He had no idea what intentions the supposed teenager would have. The hidden leaf doesn't even know the true intentions of the akatsuki. He had to keep his guard up.
The jonin sighed and went downstairs where everyone was gathering for dinner.
"Hey Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said while setting the table, "we're having fish for dinner."
They've had fish for every meal that they've had in the land of the waves.
"Sounds good," he replied with an eye-smile, "Is Sasuke back yet?"
He had started training the genin different chakra control techniques to help prepare them for whatever might happen during the mission. He had a gut feeling that something was going to happen soon enough. Sasuke had a bit of trouble tree climbing compared to his other students, the other two had both succeeded in a few tries. He told the boy to continue trying and showed the others water walking. He knew Sasuke would get it eventually.
"I'm here," Sasuke said suddenly, "I lost track of time."
"What, did you meet some pretty girl in the forest?" Kakashi teased.
The gloomy boy huffed and glared at the ground, his cheeks turning pink.
"SENSEI," Sakura shreaked, "Sasuke wouldn't do that, right Sasuke?"
"There were no girls," Sasuke muttered as he sat down at the dinner table.
"Ahhh I see you," Kakashi smirked, "So it was a pretty boy then."
Sasuke spluttered while Sakura looked dazed, a drop of red coming out of her nose. Kakashi shivered, not wanting to know what was going on in her head.
Sai tilted his head. "I didn't know you liked boys romantically Sasuke. I've never read anything like this in my books."
Kakashi didn't even want to get into Sai's obsession with books. The emotionless boy was trying to use books to learn about feelings and it seemed to work when Kakashi clarified things for him. He wished he could do more for his student but he didn't think that he should try to teach feelings and emotions when he barely had a grip on his own.
He looked over at the embarrassed Uchiha, who turned his head away in an attempt to hide his darkened cheeks. The boy sighed in relief, to Kakashi's amusement, when Tazuna and his daughter interupted as they brought in their dinner.
That night Tazuna told them that he had heard rumors about Gato coming back to the land of waves. A few days later when him and his team were on the bridge he saw a flash of red from the corner of his eye. He turned to see a short man in a suit accompanied by 50 men.
"Gato," Tazuna growled.
He pretended not to see Tazuna's hands shake as he gave his team a look.
Stay on guard, he tried to convey with his eye.
"Tazuna," Gato clapped with a chuckle, "I've come to finally end this. It's time for you all to die. Suki, blow up the bridge."
A man next to Gato stepped forward with a smirk and ran through hand seals quickly.
"Fire Style: Raining bullets!"
Kakashi acted quickly, running through hand seals of his own as fire rained down from the sky.
"Water style: Water dragon jutsu."
A dragon rose from the water surrounding the bridge and surged forwards to intercept the bullet shaped fire. The jutsu exploded as they crashed into each other in a show of mist and wind.
"Sakura and Sasuke, protect Tazuna and the workers," Kakashi said and pulled up his Hitai-ate to reveal his sharingan. "Sai, hold left while I hold right."
Sai was suspiciously well-skilled and good with a blade for a genin. He suspected that the emotionless boy was placed on the team by Danzo to keep an eye on the last Uchiha. Although the thought was a bit worrisome, he knew that Sai should be able to hold his own against multiple opponents. Large groups of mercenaries normally wouldn't be a problem for genin as ninja training outranks mercenary training by far. However, if more than one of these mercenaries know jutsu they would be at an extreme disadvantage regardless of their titles as ninja.
One lucky shot with jutsu could turn a fight for a genin.
He gripped his kunai tightly as the first 15 men shot towards him while another 15 shot towards Sai. He knew he had to find a way to keep back as many mercenaries as he could as the remaining twenty men seemed to be rushing the middle opening. He would also have to try to keep the damage to a minimum to protect the bridge's infrastructure.
"Sasuke! Fire in the middle," he shouted as he charged forwards.
He jumped into the air and threw shuriken down at his opponents. He watched as his weapons hit their targets and landed on top of the closest man to him. He swiftly plunged the Kunai up through the man's chin. He felt heat on his left side and turned his eyes briefly towards Sasuke's fireball jutsu as it burned the flesh of the closest men that tried to run past him.
The men retreated slightly by putting distance between each of them as they realized they were getting crushed on each side. He slid his eyes over to Sai and saw the boy with a bloodied blade and several bodies laying around him. Kakashi looked up at the rest of the men that were alive. Their initial assault had just about cut their numbers in half.
"I thought you said you could handle this," Gato shook with a mixture of fear and rage, "Fix this!"
Suki, who originally shot out the fire bullet jutsu, sighed and waved his hand causing two other men to appear at his side instantly.
"They are stronger than I thought," the fire user said, "But it doesn't matter, once the rest of my team gets here this will all be over quickly."
"So that was your team then?" A soft voice projected. "I'm afraid they won't be coming."
Everyone looked over simultaneously towards him.
Kurama stood in all his glory stained in blood with the kubikiribōchō in hand. His black and red cloak rustled in the breeze leaving red droplets in his wake. His blonde hair was spiked and laid dirtily on his shoulders. It was his mask that made it hard for Kakashi to breathe. The fox mask seemed to have been cracked during his battle and exposed one red slitted eye.
The sharigan anaylzed every exposed piece of skin and Kakashi was able to see a single wiskered scar. He forced his eye closed as he continued to watch Minato's son. There was no doubt in his mind now. The hair, the scar, the smell, that chakra, the fox mask representing the 9 tails. It seems so obvious now.
"No," Suki said in disbelief, "You-you couldn't have defeated them so easily."
"They weren't very strong," the blonde replied, "I'll admit that one girl with the wind release was decent enough. She actually managed to break my mask."
"YOU DEMON," Suki raged, "I'll kill you."
The Akatsuki member laughed as the fire user charged forwards with a tanto in hand.
"If only I could be killed so easily."
Naruto met the blade of the tanto just before it pierced into his skin with a flash. His hand blurred slightly and he kicked the man into his comrades. The man's head exploded in a shower of brains and blood. Naruto appeared suddenly in front of the shocked duo and swung the kubikiribōchō. As they ducked chains shot out from his chest and pierced them through the heart. He let the chains drop the bodies to the floor.
"You can fight and die," the teenager said calmly, "Or you can choose to live."
Not a single person moved as he stalked towards Gato, who was stiff in shock.
"You don't have to do this. I can pay-" the business man was cut off as his head dropped to the floor.
Kakashi watched as Naruto crouched down and removed a set of keys from the beheaded man. He tensed as the blonde turned towards them and looked at what was left of Gato's men.
"Leave us."
The men scattered like roaches and were gone in an instant.
"So we meet again, Sharingan no Kakashi," Naruto said amused, "And here I am saving you and your little genin."
Kakashi pulled down his Hitai-ate to cover his closed eye. "Maa, we had it under control."
He walked forward and stopped only a few feet away from the blonde, signaling to Sai to go back to his teammates.
"I'm sure you did," the teen snorted and pulled out a scroll, "Tazuna and I agreed to split Gato's money. This scroll has his share."
He caught the scroll after it was tossed to him. He was desperately trying to keep his laid back persona even though he could feel the guilt eating at him just by looking at the Uzumaki in front of him. He failed to protect him and now he had no idea who the boy with the sad eyes had become.
"Thank you," he said softly, "Uzumaki Naruto."
He tried to portray everything through his eye. His sorrow and guilt as well as his grief and despair. He tried to show how sorry he was that he didn't do more, that he didn't protect him in the village. He tried to show his pain. He stopped himself from falling to his knees and begging for forgiveness, for a chance to finally be there, for a boy he didn't even know.
He wasn't sure what Naruto saw when he looked at him, but for a second he thought he saw that red eye turn blue.
The walk back to the village was silent. Team Kakashi had all killed except for Sakura, but even she had witnessed something gruesome. His team wasn't as innocent as they were going into the mission.
"I think I met Kurama in the woods," Sasuke said suddenly.
"Wait you saw him without the mask?"
Sasuke's cheeks flushed slightly at Sakura's prodding.
"I mean yeah, I guess I did. I would have never guessed him to be Kurama, he was so...."
"Pretty?" Sai asked to Sasuke's embarrassment, "This is similar to Kakashi-sensei's book Sakura. You remember the enemies to lovers romance?"
Kakashi turned wide-eyed to Sakura who ducked her head to hide her reddening face. She was more of a pervert than he originally thought.
"You guys stole Kakashi's book?"
"Sakura said it's not stealing if we returned it," Sai replied obliviously, "I admit I have never read something so... descriptive. Sadly it only involved men and women so I don't think it will help you Sasuke."
Sasuke spluttered.
"I am quite confused on how everything works between two men," Sai continued and Kakashi was horrified when the boy turned to look at him, "Can you explain his sensei?"
"Well you see-I... er....." he tried until an amazing thought came to him, "I actually know someone who can explain everything to you back in the village."
I'm going to leave this one to Iruka, Kakashi thought to himself.